A Structuring Chaos Blog

Help me out here…

If unions are awesome for their members, and provide clear benefits to members – why is it such a big deal to have members opt in to pay their dues, as opposed to mandatory dues as a result of the job that one does?

After all, people stand in line to buy Apple products

People say “yes” to the grocery store clerks who ask “would you like to donate $1 to the XYZ cause today?”

When continually focusing in the media on being “forced” to represent people who don’t pay dues under a right-to-work law, union heads are implying that they spend the vast majority of their money on contract negotiations, representation or other non-political work. That is a myth.

….According to [Michigan Education Association] union documents, “representational activities” (money spent on bargaining contracts for members) made up only 11 percent of total spending for the union. Meanwhile, spending on “general overhead” (union administration and employee benefits) comprised of 61 percent of the total spending.